No description available.

Diss.--Univ. Freiburg, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. : archéol. : Frankfurt am Main : 1982. / Version commerciale de.

Conducted within a feminist framework and guided by the principles of grounded theory methodology, this dissertation reports on the findings of a study of women's rape perceptions, undertaken in Beirut, Lebanon. The study relied on 38 interviews, participant observation, and a review of newspaper articles (1996--1999) and organizational documents. / In this dissertation, I argue that perceptions of rape reflect, reinforce, and are supported by dominant social relations based on elements of social location such as gender, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, ethnicity and race. More specifically, I maintain that the relationship between perceptions of rape on one hand, and social relations on the other, is mediated by the centrality of marriage. This mediation is reflected in two processes. First, social relations lead to differential constructions of womanhood and perceived marriageability, which in turn play a large role in shaping perceptions of what counts as rape. Concretely, this impacts on which women are perceived to be consenting to sex and those perceived to be rape victims. / Second, social relations construct a marriage that adheres to specific conditions as the only acceptable union between a man and a woman in Beiruti society. In consequence, these constructions of acceptability shape what counts as "real" rape versus consensual sex. Concretely, this means that relationships that fall outside this construction of acceptability are more readily labeled as rape. / In the first four chapters of the dissertation, I provide background information about the study's theoretical framework, location within the broader empirical scholarship on rape perceptions, and methodology. I also provide detailed information about the Beiruti/Lebanese context. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are empirical chapters relating some of the findings of the study as they relate to the centrality of marriage and perceptions of rape and consent. Chapter 8 concludes the dissertation with a discussion of the themes of women's agency, the line between sex and rape, and the impact of social relations. Through this discussion, I offer concrete insights for the further development of theory, research and practice with the issue of rape.

In the era of globalisation, studies of migration focus on mobility, deterritorialised identities and diasporic forms of belonging across nation state boundaries. Indeed, uprootedness from the soil of home and place has resulted in a general condition of �homelessness� in late modernity, referred to as the diasporic condition. The search for an �absolute home� has become the Holy Grail for pilgrims in late modernity and forms the basis for this study, which explores the �migrant�s conundrum�: does home move where the migrant moves, or is it forever tied to the primordialism of place, soil and kinship? Through an examination of the construction of homeliness amongst an immigrant community of 500 households from the village of Hadchit, North Lebanon, who reside in Western Sydney, Australia it will be shown how their strategies of home-building depend upon the capacity to imagine themselves as being united by kinship, a shared village of origins and as part of the broader communal Maronite identity (Mwarne), which now transcends nation state boundaries. Patrilineage (bayt), village (day�aa) and sect (ta�eefa) have historically defined Lebanese sectarian identities and now, as this study shows, are deployed as a strategy of home-building and community construction in diaspora. However, capitalist social relations of production in Sydney have transformed bayt, day�aa and ta�eefa amongst the second generation through the gendered renegotiation of the marriage contract from relations of descent to relations of consent. Thus, the Hadchitis now face a crisis of (re)production and attribute this to the Australian state being hukum niswen, ruled by women, an inversion of the gendered order of power in Lebanon. Through pilgrimages to the ancestral village �migr�s seek a spiritual resolution to the contradictions of migration through the restoration of their connection to place, but find they cannot seamlessly belong in Hadchit. Meanwhile, multicultural crisis and a milieu of anti-Lebanese racism limit their claims to national belonging in Australia. This study finds that the contradictions of the migration process are unresolvable through physical mobility, because the feeling of �home� is ultimately an affective and social construction that transcends place. The elusive quality that defines home and provides a sense of unconditional belonging is, in fact, socially constructed by women, through their daily practices of care within the home and the most important woman for the construction of homeliness is the matriarch, sit el bayt � the power of the house. Thus, the place where the immigrant can be at home is metaphorically at their �mother�s table�. The shifting and gendered construction of home amongst the Hadchitis in Sydney has also led to a transformation of cultural identity amongst them. Through the process of migration, (re)production and return the Hadchitis have become Lebanese-Australians.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2008. / Vita: p. 165. Thesis director: Sandra Cheldelin. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 17, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-164). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2008. / Thesis advisor: Ghassan El-Eid. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in International Studies." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-83). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Jeanne Giraldo, Harold Trinkunas. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-86). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--American University of Beirut, 198-? / Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-176).

Over the past decade, scholarly works have examined the plurality and diversity of men in relation to social practices of Arab cultures, while also examining discourses of violence, militarization and hegemonic masculinity in times of war and conflict. However, there has been little discussion and critical literature concerning non- heterosexual (or queer) representations of masculinities in the Arab world. Within such context, this dissertation addresses the emerging and shifting visual representations of ‘queer’ masculinities as they are artistically performed in the contemporary lens-based artworks of internationally recognized Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari. Much of the research on queerness in the Arab region risks falling into a colonialist and liberatory framework that seeks to discover an ‘authentic’ queer identity. Contrary to such approaches, I argue for the fluidity of a local queer Arab model of disidentification underpinning Zaatari’s artworks, which questions our perceived realities of both queerness and hegemonic masculinity in Post-Civil War Lebanon. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that integrates cross-cultural comparative and queer visual analysis, I locate Zaatari’s artworks within a larger sociocultural context, as well as within and in tension with existing feminist and contemporary art discourses on the body, identity, and performativity. By examining visual and textual representations of local queer masculinities, this dissertation engages in dynamic discussions on the process of masculinization and elaborates on its future cultural and artistic trends both in the Arab world and in Western countries.